<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>along for the ride by itsthechocopuff</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27498976">along for the ride</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsthechocopuff/pseuds/itsthechocopuff'>itsthechocopuff</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Naruto</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>'hey let's raise murder children and then get mad when they commit murder', Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Attempt at Humor, Family Fluff, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Mental Health Issues, Morally Ambiguous Character, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Third Shinobi War, Yamanaka Tamaki is Inoichi's Younger Sister, also exploring the less-than-nice potential of the Yamanaka techniques, but only because i took a pizza cutter to canon and made it do my bidding, do i want to call it SI OC? not really. is it? kinda., exploring what being reborn into a Clan of mind-readers might mean for a psychology student</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 02:33:48</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>11,381</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27498976</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsthechocopuff/pseuds/itsthechocopuff</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Yamanaka Tamaki becomes aware of the fact that she is not in the world she remembers from her memories a few months before her second birthday.<br/>but how does one go about keeping a secret as big as <i>reincarnation</i> from a Clan of <i>mind-readers</i>?!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Namikaze Minato &amp; Original Female Character(s), Yamanaka Inoichi &amp; Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>60</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>462</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. stages</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i...have nothing to say for myself. to those of you who know my other works, i decided to branch out from Sakura to the Yamanaka Clan. i blame Hear the Silence entirely; the plot bunnies attacked and then multiplied...like bunnies.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riley becomes aware of the fact that something is <em>not quite right </em>a few months before her second birthday.</p><p>Her cheek is pressed against something hard but warm, and she has the distinct impression of being <em>carried. </em>Her hand, when she brings it in front of her face, is small, with pudgy, uncoordinated fingers and tiny, short nails. But beyond that, beyond the wrongness of the size of her body and the leaden feeling to her limbs, is the fact that there’s <em>noise </em>in her <em>head </em>and she can’t <em>get away from it.</em></p><p>And once she ‘becomes aware’ of all these things, she reacts in the only way she <em>can</em> at that point: she cries.</p><p>She’s aware of being carried, but the hold is all wrong; instead of soft, careful arms and a steady heartbeat by her ear, or the smaller, no less gentle albeit far bonier arms her brain supplies her with vague memories of, her head is cradled on an arm wider than her torso, the chest against her cheek flat and hard.</p><p>But worst of all is something that feels like an <em>ocean </em>raging right in her head, and it’s aggravating a sense that she doesn’t know how to describe, can’t remember ever experiencing before. It’s not tangible, but it’s <em>in her head, </em>and the pounding headache she feels building in her temples makes tears spring to her eyes.</p><p>She tries to call for the softer arms, for her usual carer, clumsy lips trying to shape unfamiliar sounds and ending up with something that comes closer to a warbled <em>maaamaaa </em>than the ‘kaa-san’ her brain aims for. She’s crying all the while, her lungs struggling to draw breath, her headache making her head feel like it’s being squeezed by a vice and she can <em>feel</em> the ocean by her ear become even more agitated, the waves choppier, rougher, and it only worsens the pounding in her brain.</p><p>She’s vaguely aware of being transferred to softer arms, her temple meeting a plush chest instead of hard muscle, and she tries to burrow into the softness, but then becomes aware of something <em>else </em>attacking that new not-sense, only this feels like a summer breeze in a meadow, wildflowers and blades of grass blowing in the wind, but the ocean is <em>still there, </em>and coupled with the meadow she feels nauseous, her head spinning.</p><p>She cries harder.</p><p>By the time soft-arms checks her nappy, puts her down in her bed, tries to feed her – which only results in Riley giving in to the nausea and throwing up all over her presumed-mother’s shoulder – her voice has grown hoarse, and the weird not-sense has noticed a <em>third </em>presence, like a still lake in the middle of a forest. It would’ve calmed her if it had been the only presence in the room, but in combination with the ocean, the meadow, and the <em>newness</em> of the not-sense, it brings her straight into the territory of full sensory-overload.</p><p>Then, hard-chest takes her again and she’s aware of a <em>real </em>breeze on her face and warmth on her small body, and everything suddenly gets a hundred times<em> worse</em>. There are <em>dozens </em>of sensations all around her, ranging from tiny sparklers to swamps and narrow rivers and thunderstorms and forest-fires and – and – and-!</p><p>She’s no longer crying. Instead, she’s almost catatonic, eyes screwed shut and tiny hands pressed desperately to her ears, but it does <em>nothing </em>to block out the noise.</p><p>Then, suddenly, everything’s cut away.</p><p>Her chest feels hollow, like somebody has carved something out of her, but the noise <em>stops. </em></p><p>Blissful, peaceful, blessed silence.</p><p>She passes out.</p>
<hr/><p>“Congratulations.” Inojou watches the doctor say, his daughter, motionless, in one of the cribs on the paediatric ward, and he’d have panicked if not for the steady rise and fall of her tiny chest. “There’s nothing wrong with your daughter.”</p><p>“Then what-?” his wife starts to say, Inoichi clutching worriedly at her sleeve, but the doctor cuts her off, though not impolitely.</p><p>“She’s a sensor.” He tells them simply, and Inojou blinks. “The episode was a reaction to the sensory overload of being in a shinobi Village.”</p><p>“We haven’t unlocked her chakra coils yet.” Satsuki murmurs, shooting Inojou a worried look, and the doctor cocks his head, though, to his favour, he doesn’t shrug.</p><p>“It happens, sometimes. Children discovering their chakra without guidance is not exactly <em>common</em> but neither is it unheard of.” The doctor flips through the file clipped to his board and hums. “I’d recommend keeping her chakra sealed fully until her birthday, or unsealing only in mostly remote locations to avoid the overload she experienced today. Afterwards, you can start to train her, if you so wish.”</p><p>“Train a <em>two-year-old child</em>?!” Satsuki demands, and Inoichi shrinks back from her side and scrambles to hide behind his dad instead, prompting Inojou to lay a calming hand on his son’s shoulder and shoot a <em>look </em>at his wife.</p><p>This time, the doctor <em>does</em> shrug.</p><p>“If you wish.” He merely repeats. “Though if you want her to be able to <em>function</em> in a shinobi Village, then training her in her chakra sense sooner rather than later would only benefit her in the long run.”</p><p>“Thank you for your counsel, sensei.” Inojou intones, and bends down to scoop Inoichi into his arms as Satsuki bends to retrieve Tamaki from the crib.</p><p>They have some decisions to make.</p>
<hr/><p>In the next few weeks, Tamaki (<em>Riley!</em>) goes about <em>orienting herself </em>in her new surroundings. As much as she can, anyway, when she’s unable to read, write, understand or <em>speak </em>much of the language she’s suddenly surrounded by.</p><p>But she understands enough to know that she’s alive, somehow, and a toddler again, even though if she concentrates, she remembers snippets of a <em>Before, </em>of different faces and different-shaped eyes and technology and cars and a <em>different language. </em>She remembers up to twenty-four candles on a birthday cake, then bright lights and the screech of tires before everything went dark and she came to awareness a few weeks back.</p><p>She still doesn’t understand <em>what, exactly, </em>the double memories mean.</p><p>She understands that something <em>happened, </em>though<em>, </em>because since becoming aware of her new surroundings and waking up feeling like she’d had a panic attack, her new-father has been spending more time with her. Taking her out of the house, just the two of them, once or twice a week, to the fields and meadows around their house – <em>compound? </em>– and whenever they’re alone, he touches her stomach and suddenly, that weird not-sense is back. She can hear the ocean when she looks at her new-father, can taste salt on her tongue even though all she ate for breakfast was rice and some puree. She can feel a deer in the forest before she sees it approach, and even when she stands still, it feels like the world around them is <em>breathing. </em></p><p>With just her father, it is not quite so overwhelming as the first time she became aware of the not-sense.</p><p>So she runs around the meadows, chases butterflies and pets the long-suffering deer with uncoordinated but gentle hands, does her level-best to get the stumble out of her step as she’s set on the ground, and then when she tires herself out, she climbs onto her new-father’s chest if he’s lying down, or clambers into his lap if he’s sitting, and allows herself to fall asleep with her ear pressed to his <em>hardflat</em> chest and the smell of the ocean in her nostrils.</p><p>Occasionally, another man joins them, and all Tamaki (<em>Riley!</em>) can think of when she looks at him is <em>steady. </em>Steady and unmoving like mountains, like the very foundations of the earth. This man is tall, tanned, and dark-eyed and haired, and he lies down next to her new-dad and watches clouds or talks quietly, and Tamaki takes to counting the words she understands like she used to count sheep before her medication kicked in.</p><p>She understands that there’s something she doesn’t fully grasp, though.</p><p>More importantly, though, she understands that her new-mother’s name is Satsuki, and that she is kind, and tall, and capable, with light green eyes and pale blond hair. Her mother sings her lullabies and reads her books when she can’t fall asleep, and she guides Tamaki’s (<em>Riley’s!</em>) chubby finger over the words as she reads them.</p><p>She understands that her new-father is called Inojou, and that he is quiet and steadfast, and even though he’s rarely home for long, she knows he loves his family. His eyes are like the clear summer sky and his hair a fine golden-blond he shares with her brother.  </p><p>And her <em>brother</em>. Older, yes, but not by much – three, four years max, she thinks. He’s cheerful and gentle and always hugs her when he gets home from playing with the other children, and his pupil-less seafoam green eyes light up when she calls him ‘<em>Ino-nii’ </em>and his smiles tell her without words that she is precious.</p><p>Tamak (<em>Riley!</em>) thinks that she would kill for him. (<em>will kill for him)</em></p><p>But it is not until her second birthday that she hears her brother’s full name.</p><p>“Inoichi-kun, go let Shikatema-oji in, would you?”</p><p>
  <em>Inoichi.</em>
</p><p>Her brother’s name is <em>Inoichi. </em></p><p>Suddenly, the last puzzle-piece that she has been missing for the last few months slots into place.</p><p>She passes out.</p>
<hr/><p>Tamaki (<em>Riley</em>) doesn’t really process the news so much as she…pushes it aside.</p><p>(<em>You’re in Denial. </em>A voice in her head whispers. It reminds her of perpetually-amused dark eyes, tweed blazers and stale coffee, of nights in libraries, and thick textbooks with more diagrams than words. <em>Hurry up and get through Anger, that’ll be more interesting.</em>)</p><p>She learns the language spoken around her, slowly, then all at once, though she still doesn’t really speak much. She still goes to the meadow with her father, and when he’s not there, her mother takes her once her brother leaves to play with his friends. She notices that they get closer and closer to the house every time they go out, and every time, her not-sense picks up some more sensations – a bonfire here, a hurricane there, a rainy morning elsewhere.</p><p>When she finds wooden knives scattered around the floor of the living room, with long handles and rings on the ends almost the size of her wrist, she shakes off the stupor and inside her, something <em>rages. </em>(<em>Anger greets her with open arms. It’s always come to her the easiest.)</em></p><p>The next time she goes to the field with her father – and it barely counts as a <em>field </em>anymore, they’re basically in their back garden, hidden from the house by a hedge and nothing more – and the moment her father touches her stomach and she feels <em>oceansaltcalm </em>with her not-sense, she scowls.</p><p>She makes eye-contact with her father, and, with deliberate slowness, she <em>reaches </em>for the edges of the ‘bubble’ her not-sense feels like and begins <em>pulling it back. </em>Inwards. Towards the place it seems to come from, which is directly under the part of her stomach her father always touches when they’re out like this. Her father <em>twitches </em>and his eyes widen, but he doesn’t stop her.</p><p>She keeps pulling on the bubble until she can’t feel the squirrel in the forest, until she can’t feel her brother and mother in the house, until she no longer hears the ocean when she looks at her father.</p><p>She’s panting, and there’s sweat running down her face and dripping salt into her eyes, but she doesn’t blink, doesn’t break eye-contact.</p><p>Her head is blissfully silent.</p><p>Then, her father reaches out, and with a glancing touch to her forehead, Tamaki’s (<em>Riley’s</em>) world goes dark.</p><p>When she wakes up, it’s to sharp words said in quiet voices.</p><p>“-instinctive grasp on her chakra…-the seal is harming more than helping!”</p><p>“-are <em>not </em>turning our <em>daughter </em>into <em>cannon fodder</em>! Inoichi is your heir and you’ve let <em>him </em>be a child!”</p><p>“Tou-san,” Tamaki (<em>Riley?</em>) pads into the kitchen, where her mother and father stand facing each other, whatever meal mother had been cooking abandoned on the stove. Both adults freeze and turn to look at her, because while she’s not mute, they can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times she <em>started </em>a conversation, “why do you feel like the ocean?”</p><p>Her mother makes a despairing sound and turns back to the food, and Tamaki (<em>Riley?</em>) wonders if she’s imagining the tears that run down the woman’s cheeks.</p><p>Her father takes her back into the sitting room and launches into a lecture about <em>natures </em>and <em>energy </em>and <em>sensitivity. </em></p><p>Tamaki (<em>Riley…?</em>) enters the <em>Bargaining</em> stage, and can’t help but wonder whether having the hallucination confirm what she’s already realised makes the hallucination more or less real.</p>
<hr/><p>For the most part, she skips over <em>Depression. </em>Yes, she died, but a hit and run was depressingly common where she’d lived, and at least she doesn’t remember the moment most of her bones must’ve broken during the collision.</p><p>Her father doesn’t bother with the seal on her stomach anymore; instead, she’s carefully coached through how to keep her sensory bubble to a manageable size at home, limiting it to the familiar forest lake of her brother, summer breeze of her mother, and endless ocean of her father. And when they go back to the fields, her father teaches her how to <em>expand </em>her bubble. How to feel not just him, and the squirrels, and their house and Clan lands, but the Nara lands some hundred metres east, and the deer and the <em>people </em>meandering about. He guides her through how to scan that information and discard it, how to not let it overwhelm her, how to brush through it with a fine-toothed comb to find a specific person or being she’s looking for.</p><p>She’s thrown straight into <em>Acceptance </em>a week before her third birthday, when her brother comes home with an official-looking piece of paper and a blinding grin, and tells her and their parents with no extra fanfare:</p><p>“I’m starting the Academy next month!”</p><p>Tamaki blinks.</p><p>Smiles.</p><p>Throws herself at her brother and grins when he immediately drops the fancy-looking paper to catch her and spin her around.</p><p>“Congratulations, nii-san!”</p><p>Inoichi laughs happily, smacks a kiss to her cheek, and launches into a tale of how he’ll be a real ninja now, and he’ll be able to protect her and carry on the Yamanaka name with pride.</p><p>Tamaki listens, and she feels her smile become less and less genuine the longer her brother talks, though she keeps it carefully stuck to her face.</p><p>The chances of this world being a hallucination are…slim.</p><p>She’s died, been reborn, and ended up in the <em>Naruto </em>world as a <em>sensor</em> some twenty-odd years before the protagonist was even <em>born. </em></p><p>And her brother will be the Head of the Clan of <em>mind-readers. </em></p><p>
  <em>…Fuck.</em>
</p><p>“’Maki-chan! Try the cake kaa-san made!” Inoichi calls to her some time later, and when she looks at him, he’s holding out a finger with some buttercream icing, and, well.</p><p>Tamaki dutifully pads over, stops right in front of her brother, <em>licks</em> the sweet cream right off his finger, and delights in his laughter and mock-disgusted crows.</p><p>From what she remembers of a story from long-ago, there will be war, and death, and suffering.</p><p>But here, in this moment, her brother is a <em>child </em>excited about playing an adult, her parents are alive, and the Third Shinobi War has yet to start.</p><p>
  <em>Yamanaka Tamaki is three years old when she resigns herself to the life of a killer if it means she’ll be able to protect her brother’s smile.</em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. branching out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wassuuuuup so i got a real case of the plot bunnies and am also procrastinating hella assignments from uni, so the second chapter is out within a matter of days, rather than weeks, like my usual posting schedule.<br/>if it works out right, we'll have about two more chapters of 'setting the scene', then move onto the 'action' part.<br/>also, before anyone calls me out for too-fast development, some four-year-olds can read. not well, given, but they <i>can</i>, so an adult in a child's body should be able to manage it around the same time.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>For the first six months of Inoichi's Academy career, Tamaki's life continues on in much the same way it had since she first became aware of her new surroundings.</p><p>That is to say, she expands her not-sense with her father - which she now knows is, in fact, her <em>ability to sense chakra, </em>because fate is a bitch -  plays with her brother, reads with her mother and wonders when she could reasonably ask for a dictionary and some calligraphy lessons.</p><p>She wants to <em>take notes, </em>damn it,because there are a <em>lot </em>of things to remember and they're all new and seem important, but she sincerely doubts anyone would be willing to accept clumsily-written English notes without locking her in T&amp;I for the rest of her life.</p><p>At the age of three and a half, she realises that after almost two years of sitting in her mother's lap and following the words on the page as the woman read them, she can - <em>finally </em>- read by herself.</p><p>The first book she picks for her entirely solo project?</p><p>
  <em>The Guide to Homeopathic Medicine. </em>
</p><p>Those over-stimulation headaches she gets after working on her sensing for too long are no joke. Sensory overload <em>sucks. </em></p><p>So when she wakes up from her nap one day, around the two-year mark of her first god-awful experience of what <em>suddenly being able to feel everything around her </em>was like, she does a quick chakra-scan of the house, disappointed but not surprised to find it empty.</p><p>Her mother is apparently still not back from her mission, Inoichi is likely at the Academy, and her father is god-knows-where, but he's the Clan Head, so it'd be weird if he was home all that often.</p><p>She shrugs to herself and grabs her book and pencil, settling comfortably on the floor and getting ready to trudge through the text, dutifully underlining the words she doesn't know with her pencil for either parent to explain later, and circling those she doesn't have the slightest clue what they mean but seem important from the context.</p><p>She loses track of how much time passes, but eventually, she spots a word she's circled three or four times already and it's starting to annoy her. It doesn't help that it's the one keyword in the sentence, and her not understanding it makes the sense of the sentence a mystery.</p><p><em>Make sure to check </em>something <em>before ingesting. </em></p><p>Well. Time to track down tou-san, it seems.</p><p>Tamaki sighs, circles the word <em>again, </em>and gets to her feet, almost stumbling once she hefts the book and realises it makes <em>Les Misérables </em>look like 'light reading', size-wise. She trots to the hallway, slips on her outside-shoes, and closes her eyes, concentrating, letting go of the careful hold she now subconsciously keeps on her 'bubble' and feeling it spread. She stretches it slowly, senses on high-alert for the familiar salt-ocean of her father's signature, wincing at the steady pulsing she can already feel in her temple.</p><p>There are a <em>lot </em>of people in Konoha.</p><p>Eventually, she finds her tou-san, though his signature is weirdly muted and she sweeps the area twice and still almost misses him. He's in one of the denser-populated districts, along with a vaguely familiar mountain-valley chakra impression that she belatedly remembers belonged to Shikatema. The pulsing in her temples has become a steady throbbing, but she has a destination in mind now, so she secures her behemoth of a book under her arm, locks up the house as she leaves - though she doubts a locked front door would stop any remotely motivated shinobi - and sets off.</p><p>It feels like she walks <em>forever, </em>her headache making the rays of late afternoon sun feel like needles being stabbed directly into her eyes, so she squints until her eyes are mostly shut and relies almost entirely on her chakra sense to dodge the people around her. The closer she gets the more she pulls her 'bubble' back into herself, eager to get rid of both the headache, and the weird, almost bloated feeling she gets when she does this, like she's too big for her body all of a sudden, as soon as she can.</p><p>Finally, once she's close enough she can narrow her bubble down to a five-metre radius and still feel her father within it, she brings her chakra-sense in fully and slowly opens her eyes. The sudden silence in her head is a <em>blessing, </em>though the tension headache she’s earned is still alive and well, and she's <em>exhausted, </em>her tiny body not used to walking as far as she apparently has.</p><p>Still, she looks around, realising with a small degree of amusement that she's in what looks like one of the many Akimichi outdoor eating gardens, though it's not one she's familiar with, but she dismisses the thought and turns her gaze to where her father's signature last was and-</p><p>"Tou-san!" she calls once she spots him, making her way over to the table she can see his blond head at, absently realising she's caught the attention of the other men at the table with her father as well as the<em> very big dog</em> laying a few feet away.</p><p>"Tamaki." Her father blinks, blue eyes taking her in, though the lack of a pupil makes it difficult to pin down what he's really looking at. "What are you doing here?"</p><p>Tamaki ignores the question for the moment, clambering onto the bench so she can stand on the seat and be <em>almost </em>at eye-level with her father, which makes it easier to heft the book the last few centimetres and drop it on the table in front of Inojou with a satisfying <em>thud, </em>and she manages not to break any of the many platters and cups scattered around the table<em>. </em></p><p>"Tou-san, what does this word mean?" she asks instead of answering him, pointing at the <em>annoying nuisance of a word </em>she's circled and couldn't seem to get past.</p><p>Her words are greeted with more than one snort, and it takes her a moment to realise the sound didn't come from her father. She throws the other men a look, taking in the obviously-amused Inuzuka, a Hyuuga, a man with Uchiha colouring though no Clan mark in sight, a tanned, brown-haired man she doesn’t immediately recognise, and-</p><p>"Hello, Shikatema-ojisan." she greets the man politely, not too surprised since she'd felt him here when she was looking for her father, and for all that Inoichi casually calls the man 'Shika-oji', her interactions with the Nara Clan Head have largely been limited to napping in his presence or testing her grasp of Japanese by listening to his quiet conversations with Inojou.</p><p>The man smiles at her and nods, though there's something <em>intrigued </em>in his dark gaze, for all of the projected laziness.</p><p>"Tamaki." Her father brings her attention back to him, and something in his tone makes her straighten unconsciously, wary. "How did you find me?"</p><p>And that- the wording is different than the first time, and she frowns, confused. She's been expanding her reach <em>with </em>her father at her side for the better part of the year; isn't this a bit of a... <em>dumb </em>question for him to ask?</p><p>"By your chakra." she says slowly, eyes trained on the man's face for any kind of tell, but her father's face might as well have been chiselled out of stone for all that it gives away.  "Was I not... supposed... to have?"</p><p>Her father eyes her for a few more seconds, then sighs, gaze finally slipping to the book she'd dropped in front of him.</p><p>"Dosage." he says, and Tamaki belatedly realises he's referring to the word she's circled. "Quantity, or the amount of something, usually a medicine. And-"</p><p>He frowns, scanning over the rest of the page, absently taking the pencil she offers him, though his hand freezes before he can jot the definition down.</p><p>"Why," he asks, and there's that weird tone again, "are you reading about <em>bloodroot</em>?"</p><p>"Headaches." Tamaki explains dutifully watching as her father writes '<em>amount' </em>in jerky, robotic motions. "There are a <em>lot </em>of people in the Village, tou-san." she adds wryly.</p><p>There's another quiet guffaw, and Tamaki winces at the sudden sound and shoots the Inuzuka man a curious look, though he only grins, sharp canines snagging on his lower lip, and Tamaki finds herself more reluctantly amused than intimidated.</p><p>She looks at her book again, and-</p><p>"Could we get me a <em>dic-tion-ar-y</em>, tou-san?" she asks distractedly, grabbing her pencil back from the man's lax hold. "And calligraphy lessons?"</p><p>Her father sighs gustily, the action rather uncharacteristic of him, and Tamaki's head jerks up to look at him and she hisses, her eyes screwing shut and one of her hands coming up to her forehead, her still-present headache not appreciating the sudden movement.</p><p>"That looks like a nasty headache, kiddo." one of the men offers sympathetically, though his tone is irritably cheerful, and Tamaki just <em>knows </em>it's the Inuzuka. She's not expecting the question that comes after, though. "Want some help?"</p><p>She pries her eyes open and squints at the man, belatedly realising that he's holding his hand out, the tips of his fingers glowing green with what she guesses is medical-ninjutsu. </p><p>She makes herself <em>really </em>look at his face, but he's still wearing that crooked grin, albeit smaller now, though his eyes are trained on Inojou instead of her.</p><p>Tamaki considers his chakra - like little fire crackers, or sparklers - and the hand he's holding out, then, intentionally not looking at her father, leans closer towards him so he can reach her head more easily.</p><p>Once his fingers make contact, there's a moment where nothing happens, and then a blessedly cool sensation spreads from the place his fingers are touching, soothing the ache in her temples and making her headache ebb away until it disappears completely in <em>seconds.</em></p><p>"Oh, my god." Tamaki mumbles, absently aware that she slurs the words a little, but the moment his cool fingers leave her skin, her limbs start to feel heavy and her eyes droop, as if the pain in her temples was the only thing keeping her alert and awake.</p><p>"You're my new favourite person." she blearily informs the Inuzuka, feeling his startle by his chakra, but she's more concerned in getting her legs under her so she can <em>sit </em>on the bench and lean against her father, more than half-way asleep all of a sudden.</p><p>"Tamaki?" her father asks worriedly, arm coming around her shoulders to make sure she doesn't fall off the bench when she sways, and she hums in response.</p><p>"'ma sleep fo'bit, tou-san." she manages to say, before she stops registering much of anything as sleep claims her.</p>
<hr/><p>Inojou feels the moment his daughter goes boneless against his side, her earlier energy draining out of her like air out of a balloon, until she slumps next to him like a puppet with its strings cut.</p><p>So he raises his gaze from his daughter and levels Yukio with a flat look, and the inuzuka looks a mix between amused and alarmed.</p><p>"Uh, that happens sometimes with the puppies." his friend hastens to explain, and Inojou <em>feels </em>Shikatema's amusement at his daughter being compared to a <em>puppy ninken</em>.</p><p>"I thought you said your kid didn't talk." Akashi points out dryly, and Inojou wonders why his old teammate chose <em>that </em>particular thing he's said about his daughter to pay attention to.</p><p>"I think it was more that she didn't want to talk until she was sure that she could." Shikatema offers blandly, saving Inojou from having to try and word the explanation himself. "Shikaku was the same."</p><p>"She sensed you." Takeshi observes, expression thoughtful, and Inojou isn't sure he likes the glint in the lilac eyes. "All the way from your Compound, even though your chakra is muted?"</p><p>He shrugs, trying to affect a casual air. "Familiarity probably helped. She hasn't had dealings with people outside of me and Satsuki since we started training, so."</p><p>"You could bring her to Kagami-sama." Izuki suggests, and Inojou knows his teammate well enough to read beneath the 'casual' suggestion. "Get an 'official' idea of her range."</p><p>"Wouldn't he mind?" Inojou checks, because though the Nidaime's old student had retired from active service some years back, everyone knew he was still <em>mostly</em> the one running the Uchiha Clan.</p><p>"He's been bored since he's retired, and my Clan isn't exactly known for producing sensors." Izuki shoots back flatly, and, at loss of what more to do, Inojou nods his thanks and settles back to consider the offer.</p><p>Luckily, the conversation quickly moves away from the topic of his daughter, and he breathes a relieved sigh once he doesn't have to deal with some of the sharpest minds in the Village trying to figure out how much of Tamaki's skill he's been actively hiding.</p><p>After all, if a three-and-a-half year old child with a year of training as a sensor can pinpoint his exact location from half-way across a Village full of shinobi, he doesn't want to think of what she'll be able to do in another year, or five.</p><p>He also doesn't want to think about the fact that <em>true </em>sensors are few and far between, and with Tamaki's range as it is now, the only thing keeping her from the Academy, and, subsequently, the front-lines, is her <em>age</em>.</p><p>But some time later, when he’s almost managed to relax again, his daughter stirs, and singlehandedly ruins his careful schemes with the words that come tumbling out of her mouth.</p><p>“Kaa-san’s back.” She murmurs drowsily, then it seems like she’s going to go straight back to sleep until she adjusts her position and the sunlight hits her closed eyes, and her small hand flies up to her forehead in a move Inojou’s grown unfortunately familiar with.</p><p>“I forgot to reel the bubble back in.” she whines pitifully, turning her head so she can bury her face in his sleeve, no doubt to block out as much as possible of the late afternoon sun.</p><p>Sighing, he shoots a look at Yukio, who grins, looking oddly pleased as he extends a hand, tips of his fingers glowing green.</p><p>“Tamaki.” Inojou nudges the girl, but she whines again, not moving.</p><p>“Sorry, tou-san, but ‘m not movin’ anywhere.” she grumbles, drawing a quiet chuckle from Shikatema.</p><p>“Yukio is offering to make your headache go away again.” Inojou says dryly, feeling his daughter still at the news.</p><p>Slowly, she pries her face away from his sleeve, though immediately slaps her hands over her still-closed eyes, yet she still turns towards Yukio’s extended hand with unerring accuracy.</p><p>Leaning in, she sighs as the man banishes her headache for the second time in as many hours, and when her eyes finally open, she looks almost cat-like, pale green eyes half-lidded and relaxed, and a small, lazy smile crooks her lips.</p><p>"Hey, Inuzuka-san,” she mumbles, raising a hand in front of her face, “any chance you could teach me that" she wiggles her fingers in a rather uncoordinated manner, "<em>headache-banishing</em> thing of yours?"</p><p>Inojou feels Satsuki come within his sensing range, so he <em>shunshins </em>away from the table to greet his wife, and maybe, just maybe, so that he doesn’t have to bear witness to Yukio’s startled laughter and Shikatema’s quiet snickers following his daughter’s words.</p>
<hr/><p>Tamaki nearly stacks it face-first into the bench once her father, who she’d been leaning 90% of her weight against, suddenly disappears. Her nose is only saved from its one-way trajectory to meet with the unforgiving wood of the bench thanks to a hand catching the back of her shirt as she starts to fall.</p><p>“…Good catch.” She offers, craning her head to blink at the Hyuuga man who’d been the one to catch her. “Thanks, Hyuuga-san!”</p><p>“You sensed when your mother stepped through the Village gates?” the man asks instead of acknowledging her thanks, setting her back down in a mostly sat-up position and releasing his hold on the back of her shirt.</p><p>Tamaki frowns at the weird tone to the man’s words and gives in to the urge to stretch after the rather uncomfortable position her body had been in during her nap. When her arm covers her face from the Hyuuga’s piercing gaze, though, she shoots an inquiring look at Shikatema, the only member of the group she’s remotely comfortable with now that her father’s suddenly gone.</p><p>Shikatema meets her eyes from his slumped position on the Hyuuga’s left, arms folded on the table and head cushioned in the crook of his elbow, reads the question within them, and slowly, almost imperceptibly, shakes his head. <em>No. Don’t answer. </em></p><p>Tamaki blinks, completes her stretch, then looks up at the rather unimpressed-looking Hyuuga, wondering how to word her lie.</p><p>“…Dunno.” She answers childishly after a beat, adding in an insolent half-shrug for good measure. “I felt her when she entered my bubble, but I don’t think it’s that big yet!” she adds with fake cheer, and <em>that </em>seems to kill the last of the Hyuuga’s curiosity and he turns away, picking up conversation with the thus-unnamed brunet.</p><p>She waits a beat, then nods her thanks at Shikatema, and ignores the irritatingly intrigued glint in his eyes, turning instead to the Inuzuka, who at least seems mostly straightforward in his intentions.</p><p>“Is that your partner?” she inquires curiously, tilting her head at the dozing dog a few feet away from the table.</p><p>“As good as.” The man – <em>father had called him Yukio</em>, she remembers suddenly – replies, oddly cryptic, and when it becomes clear he’s not going to elaborate, Tamaki doesn’t press.</p><p>“What’s his name?” she asks instead, peering closer at the ninken, admiring how his dark fur seems to almost absorb the light.</p><p>“The lump of fur goes by Kaimaru.”</p><p>Said lump of fur has apparently only been feigning sleep, because the dog raises his head and fixes his – owner? partner? – with an unimpressed look. Then, that gaze flickers to her, and the dog stretches then climbs to its feet, ambling closer to where she’s sitting, and Tamaki is pretty sure he’d be up to her father’s waist, easily.</p><p>In other words, more than twice her size.</p><p>“Whose puppy did you steal now?” the dogs asks lazily, tilting its head at her, and Tamaki ignores Yukio’s indignant squawk and holds out a hand for the ninken, unsure if their way of familiarising themselves with new people was the same as the dogs she’d had dealings with <em>before. </em></p><p>“She’s <em>Inojou’s</em>, you mange-ridden mutt!” Yukio snaps, though Tamaki doesn’t hear any actual anger in his words. “And I didn’t <em>steal </em>Tsume, I was <em>baby-sitting!”</em></p><p>Kaimaru, with the ease of what is apparently long practice, ignores Yukio, leaning closer to sniff her offered hand. Then, there’s suddenly something warm and wet and rough sliding over her fingers, and Tamaki laughs as the ninken <em>licks her.</em></p><p>She shoots a glance at Yukio, who’s watching her interact with his partner curiously, and he must read the question in her eyes because he nods.</p><p>Still, Tamaki turns to the dog, and in the most serious tone she can manage, which is no doubt hilarious to the adults around her considering she’s <em>three years old and talking to a dog, </em>asks:</p><p>“Would it be alright to pet you?”</p><p>Kaimaru gives what must be the equivalent of a doggy grin and nods, and Tamaki doesn’t need more persuading.</p><p>She loses time scratching behind the ninken’s ears and running her fingers through its soft fur, and it’s only when her father reappears at the table, her mother a step behind him, that she looks up from her task.</p><p>“Kaa-san!” she calls, sliding off the bench, staggering to her feet, and all but launching herself at her mother’s legs.</p><p>Laughing quietly, Satsuki bends down and hefts her into her arms, pressing her comfortably against her side.</p><p>“Tama-chan.” her mother greets, pressing a kiss to her hair, and Tamaki feels a wave of <em>warmth </em>and <em>safety </em>wash over her. “Your father tells me you’ve been keeping busy.” She adds dryly, and Tamaki huffs.</p><p>It’s <em>boring </em>being a child, and she’s already starting at a knowledge disadvantage! Is it really so bad to want to learn things?</p><p>“I can’t sleep the <em>whole</em> day away.” She grumbles theatrically, crossing the arm she doesn’t have around her mother’s neck in front of her chest. “’m not a <em>Nara.</em>”</p><p>Tamaki ignores the guffaws from the table and her father’s quiet sigh, focusing instead on her mother’s chuckle and the gentle hand she runs through her hair.</p><p>“Let’s go pick up your brother from the Academy.” Satsuki offers instead, and Tamaki brightens; Inoichi is the <em>cutest</em> six-year-old. “I’m sure he’d like that.”</p><p>The time they manage to have as a whole family later that day is something Tamaki will hold close to her chest for years to come, particularly when her mother gets sent out <em>again</em> not five days later.</p><p>The Second Shinobi War is in full swing, and Yamanaka jounin were invaluable with POWs.</p>
<hr/><p>Her fourth birthday is something of a quiet affair; her mother is back in the Village, but she’s visibly exhausted, and her left arm is in a sling. Tamaki gets a cake and a family dinner, and she’s grateful, especially since Satsuki hadn’t been home for Inoichi’s birthday six months earlier.</p><p>She grins at the brand-new calligraphy set she gets from father, and the set of three tops, thick leggings and tiny shinobi sandals she unpacks from her mother makes her stomach churn unpleasantly, because there’s only one reason she’d be receiving training clothes, and she has a <em>bad feeling about it. </em></p><p>Inoichi’s gift makes her openly gasp; a round, flat, smooth stone, engraved on one side with their Clan’s symbol, while on the other, it was inset with what looked like smoothed, raw aquamarine, exactly the same shade as Inoichi’s eyes. Next to it in the box was a leather cord, and Tamaki wasted no time threading the cord through the metal ‘eye’ welded to the stone and holding the string out to Inoichi, the request clear.</p><p>Her brother tied the necklace around her neck with minimal fanfare, then laughed when she threw herself at him in a hug. Tamaki didn’t know if Inoichi had had a younger sister in the story she’d read once, or if something had happened to her before the ‘canon’ events, but if this is how Inoichi behaves with <em>her, </em>it’s suddenly perfectly clear to her why Ino had been the way she was in the story.</p><p>Still, she doesn’t pay it too much heed, choosing to enjoy the hug her brother wraps her in, the weight of the necklace he’s given her a solid, comforting weight against her sternum, and she closes her eyes and tries to commit this moment to memory.</p><p>She has a feeling she’ll need it.</p>
<hr/><p>The day after her birthday, her bad feeling about the training clothes is confirmed.</p><p>Her father had called out to her when she’d been upstairs, telling her to follow him once she’d put away her calligraphy tools. Once she got to the field though – the furthest one they’ve ever been to for her training – she found a man standing next to her father. A man she’s never seen before. A man who is <em>undoubtedly</em> an Uchiha.</p><p>And he’s studying her just as surely as she’s studying him, and Tamaki tenses all her muscles to keep herself from fidgeting.</p><p>She knows what she looks like; pale and small. She takes after her mother in that her skin is pale compared to the rest of their Clan, though at least Satsuki has the excuse of <em>marrying</em> a Yamanaka, rather than being born one. She has cropped, light-blond hair a shade off platinum, and pupil-less jade eyes. All in all, she looks…ghostly. And a lot like Ino, now that she thinks about it, which means Ino got her grandmother’s genes. Will get. <em>Whatever</em>.    </p><p>Point is, she looks harmless. Like a child. The asymmetric lilac training top, the grey leggings and black shinobi sandals make her feel like she’s playing dress-up, rather than getting ready to take her first steps along the path of a trained killer.</p><p>And the man standing in front of her, though he’s smiling, <em>radiates </em>competence and experience, and even once she spreads her bubble out to encompass him, she realises that she can barely sense him. She would’ve likely mistaken him for a squirrel if she wasn’t looking straight at him, and that <em>terrifies her</em>.</p><p>“Tamaki.” her father greets her, and his tone is oddly formal. Weighted. “This is Uchiha Kagami. He was one of Senju Tobirama-sama’s students, and he’s the Uchiha Clan’s best sensor. He kindly agreed to sacrifice a part of his busy day to spend with you.”</p><p>Tamaki tilts her head, though she doesn’t dare speak, but her scepticism at the words ‘<em>spend</em> with her’ must show on her face, because Kagami’s smile widens, and his eyes grow a tad warmer.</p><p>“To test you.” he acknowledges, and his voice is…pleasant. Deep and steady, and not at all like she expected. “Your father tells me you’re a competent sensor. I’d like to put you through the same tests Tobirama-sensei put me through, if you’re agreeable.”</p><p>Inojou’s non-expression tells her that any answer other than ‘yes, of course!’ is unacceptable. She swallows and quickly looks away from her father.</p><p>“What kinds of tests?” she asks, because it feels like a very important question, and it’s not an <em>outright</em> refusal, even though her father still sighs.</p><p>Kagami looks entertained, though, so she’s probably fine.</p><p>“To test your range, mainly. Familiarity with the terrain. Ability to deal with over-stimulation. Adaptability. The like.” He answers easily, and Tamaki finds herself nodding, somewhat reassured.</p><p>“…Alright.” She agrees cautiously, and Inojou’s non-expression turns into a wry smile, while Kagami’s gains a sharp edge.</p><p>Then, something dark is pressed against her eyes, and she loses the ground under her feet, and nausea surges up, right before she loses consciousness completely.</p><p>Her last thought before the dark swallows her up is <em>what the </em>fuck<em> did I agree to?!</em></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. tests</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>heylooo people! </p><p>so, here we are, chap 3, and things are finally <i>moving</i> though it's gonna be a bit yet until we get into the ~proper action cause, well. tamaki is <i>four years old</i> right now. </p><p>i do have the big events of this story penned down, but the time between the updates is largely going to be filled with trying to connect Point A to Point D, cause my brain doesn't believe in chronological plot bunnies. [oops]. </p><p>[also, yes, tamaki is going to be a manipulative lil bastard when she grows up, but we'll build up to that. for now, i'm aware that i'm writing her a bit bratty, dontcha worry.]</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Her last thought before the dark swallows her up is <em>what the </em>fuck<em> did I agree to?!</em></p><hr/><p>It feels like mere seconds later that she comes to, though there is still something obscuring her vision, and her stomach and senses complaining of a bad case of vertigo.</p><p>She waits for everything to stop spinning before she tries to get her bearings, realising belatedly that she’s laying face-down on the ground. Once she realises, she slowly pushes to her knees, bringing her hands up to feel around whatever’s covering her eyes as soon as she’s stable.</p><p>A blindfold. Made from thick material, almost covering her nose as well with how wide the strip of fabric is, and when she ghosts her fingers along it, she finds a complicated knot tying the fabric around her head.</p><p>A sharp caw startles her when she moves to pick at the knot, and in the next second, there’s a flap of wings and something sharp pecking at her fingers.</p><p>“<em>Master Kagami wished you keep it on.” </em>A sharp, shrill voice informs her, and Tamaki expands her bubble almost instinctively, but what she finds isn’t <em>human</em>.</p><p>A…bird? But with far more chakra than the woodpecker she’d seen in a nearby tree when she’d reached the clearing.</p><p>“A summon?” she mumbles, thinking out loud. Thinking of it now, Shisui and Itachi <em>had</em> used crows in the story she’d once read, hadn’t they?</p><p>She gets another caw, this one sounding like confirmation, and she huffs.</p><p>“Do you know what I’m meant to do?” she asks, feeling only slightly ridiculous talking to a <em>bird</em> as she expands her senses.</p><p>She can’t feel her father anywhere in the vicinity, and with the blindfold over her eyes, she can sort of guess what the Uchiha’s first test for her is, but she wants a confirmation.</p><p>“<em>Find your father. No looking</em>.” The bird trills, and there’s another flap of wings, and Tamaki feels it rise above her head and take flight.</p><p>Tamaki sighs and resigns herself to another overstimulation headache.</p><p>Then, she carefully pushes to her feet, spreading her arms out for balance, wobbling slightly before she adjusts to having her eyes covered.</p><p>And then, she spreads her ‘bubble’ out fully.</p><p>The wave of foreign chakra that hits her is just as nauseating as it was the first time she’d expanded her bubble to its limits, and it’s only her familiarity with her immediate surroundings – her Clan grounds, the Nara Clan’s compound and forest – that keeps her on her feet and prevents her from cancelling the technique.  </p><p>A quick scan of the Nara and Yamanaka compounds proves what she’d already suspected – her father is not there.</p><p>“A <em>test</em>, he’d said.” She mutters, trying to remember what the Uchiha had said before they’d blindfolded her and made her feel like she just got off a bad rollercoaster. “Range and adaptability. If range, then surely, they’d start out <em>small</em> rather than…?”</p><p>She considers what she knows of the forests they usually train in and focuses her attention on the stretch of forest the furthest from her Clan’s grounds. There are much fewer people in that part of her bubble, some scattered on one of the nearby training grounds, two seemingly just strolling through the woods. The training grounds feel odd to her senses, as, mixed with the flickering signals she’s grown to recognise as human are other, more stagnant-feeling traces she’s never noticed before, but she brushes them aside for now.  </p><p>And then, at around the half-way point of her sensing range, she finds her father’s calm ocean of chakra.</p><p>She doesn’t bother biting back the happy cheer she lets out, and once again startles at the sudden caw she gets in response.</p><p>“Hey, summon-san?” she checks, <em>definitely</em> feeling ridiculous this time but not minding as much with the lack of witnesses. “Can you tell me if I’m about to trip over something, please?”</p><p>She <em>is</em> about to try to make her way through a rather densely-packed forest, <em>blindfolded, </em>after all.</p><p>She gets another caw and decides to take it as a ‘yes’, then carefully, even slower than usual, sets off towards her father’s signature.</p><p>She keeps her hands spread out, fingers and palms brushing the trees she walks past roughly, and the summon <em>does</em> manage to mostly keep her from faceplanting into the forest floor. She still manages to scrape her elbow on a trunk and walk straight through some sharp branches which she’s sure leave scratches on her face and neck, but for the most part, she gets through the forest unscathed.</p><p>Tamaki walks all the way to her father, and only when her hand closes around the hem of his shirt does she lift her free hand to push her blindfold up and off to beam at him.</p><p>The light that assaults her vision makes her wince and squint her eyes shut again, the headache that had been building in her temples pulsing viciously, but once she adjusts and slowly opens her eyes again, she finds Inojou looking at her with a small, amused smile.</p><p>“Under ten minutes.” Kagami’s voice comes from somewhere behind her father, and Tamaki startles when she realises she <em>hadn’t felt him at all. </em>“Not too bad. What took the longest?”</p><p>Tamaki glances up at her father, but his face is once again unreadable, smile absent, and she frowns, settling for honesty.</p><p>“Getting through the forest <em>blindfolded</em>, Uchiha-san.” She informs him, perhaps a little more tartly than she should’ve judging by the quiet sigh her father lets out. “<em>Finding</em> tou-san wasn’t a problem.”</p><p>“Lesson number one,” Kagami replies, onyx eyes assessing her, his chakra still hidden, the quiet mirth in his eyes from earlier now gone as well, “<em>all</em> things have chakra. If you’d concentrated more on your surroundings than on your father, you would’ve been able to see the outlines of the trees around you with your chakra-sense.”</p><p>Tamaki blinks, absorbing that information.</p><p>It…makes <em>sense</em>, she supposes, remembering the concept of Sage Mode from <em>before, </em>and she reckons to someone like the Uchiha or the Hyuuga that fact might be <em>obvious</em>, but she still can’t help the flash of indignation that surges through her, though she does her best to keep her face from showing it.</p><p>“Okay.” She says, seeing the surprised look her father sends her at her curt reply.</p><p>She doesn’t offer the man more than that, doesn’t ask ‘<em>what next?</em>’, just keeps quiet and keeps looking at Kagami, <em>waiting</em>, and anybody who didn’t know her might’ve thought that her patience is a show of respect.</p><p>It’s not. It’s really, <em>really</em> not, but only people from <em>before </em>would know that.</p><p>(She pushes that realisation to the back of her mind and refuses to acknowledge the <em>sting</em> it leaves. She’s only <em>four</em>, here. She can have relationships like that again.)</p><p>“Again.” Kagami finally breaks, gesturing at her father to step closer to him, “Pull your blindfold down.”</p><p>And he moves, as if to do whatever he’d done to her the first time, but Tamaki holds up a hand to halt him.</p><p>“Can you not knock me out this time?” She asks quickly, her earlier resolution to be nothing but distantly compliant momentarily forgotten. “I might puke.”</p><p>She sees Kagami nod slowly, and at his confirmation, she finally does tug the blindfold back over her eyes.</p><p>“Count to thirty, then try to find your father again.” He instructs, and she extends her senses just in time to <em>feel </em>them <em>disappear, </em>accompanied by a quiet ‘<em>poof’</em>.</p><p><em>Shunshin? </em>She muses, ignoring the instructions and stretching her senses further out, almost managing to ignore the pounding in her temples. <em>Or replacement?</em></p><p>After the thirty seconds pass, she slowly heads for the spot her father and Kagami had been standing, and when she doesn’t trip over a convenient log or rock, she decides it must’ve been the former.</p><p>“Alright.” She breathes, grateful for the blindfold when her headache begins to make her nauseous. “Where are you, tou-san?”</p><p>She feels a <em>ping</em> of ocean-salt a few dozen metres to her left, though it feels different to when she’d had her father right before her. Muted, almost, not as substantial. Like an echo.</p><p>Still, she decides to head in that direction, a little steadier on her feet this time. Her headache overshadows the burn of her scraped palms and scratched face, but the pounding of her temples is a familiar pain, so she can almost ignore it.</p><p>
  <em>Almost. </em>
</p><p>She reaches the spot her father must’ve briefly stopped at. To her senses it feels like she was walking for under three minutes, but it could’ve very well been longer.</p><p>She’s still not used to child-sized legs.</p><p>Focusing back on the task at hand, she realises that, predictably, her father is not there. And the ‘echo’ she’d assumed she’d been tracking is now faint, barely noticeable, even with her familiarity with her father’s signature.</p><p>So she spreads her bubble out again, focusing on the direction she’d been walking, and the <em>strength </em>of the sudden signatures that assault her senses brings her to her knees.</p><p>It’s the echoes again, the stagnant-feeling elemental traces she’d dismissed earlier, only now, she’s closer, and there are so many <em>layers </em>of elemental chakra right in front of her that her head spins. Fire, earth, and water dominate, each trace differing from the other, reflecting the differences between the casters, and the minutia of those differences overwhelm her.</p><p>She feels bile rise up her throat and immediately reels her bubble back in, and she’s sure that if she could see, her vision would be swimming.</p><p>“<em>Right</em>.” She croaks once she gets her urge to vomit under control. She’s sweating and her arms and legs are shaking like she’d ran a marathon, and her headache is worse than she can remember it being in a long time. She drops her head, Inoichi’s necklace slipping out from the collar of her shirt and swinging freely from its cord. She wraps her fingers around it for comfort and draws a deep, shuddering breath. “Not doing <em>that</em> again.”</p><p>She lets go of the necklace and pushes to her feet, her bubble still compressed, wound tight under her skin. She hadn’t felt any <em>human</em> signatures in the training ground, so she reckons it’s safe to step onto it and cut across, into the woods on the other side.</p><p>She’s fully reliant on the summon she can hear flapping its wings above her, and she falls twice more, her knee scraping against a felled trunk quite harshly, surely ruining her leggings, but she doesn’t <em>care.</em></p><p>Once she crosses the field and steps a few metres into the woods on the other side, she carefully spreads her bubble out once more, keeping a razor-sharp focus on her father’s signature.</p><p>To her surprise, she finds him even closer than he’d been the first time, by her estimation less than fifty or so metres in front of her.</p><p>Puzzled, she makes her way through the forest to him, this time pulling off her blindfold as soon as she steps onto the clearing.</p><p>“Twenty minutes.” Kagami declares, eyeing her sharply from where he’s standing next to her father. “And we were closer this time. What was the issue?”</p><p>Tamaki frowns, nausea rising at the mere memory.</p><p>“The training grounds.” She says simply, and Kagami nods, seemingly satisfied, as if having expected that.</p><p>“Lesson two: just as all <em>natural</em> things have chakra, all <em>jutsu</em> leave a chakra trace. You need to learn to filter between active and passive signatures or you’ll get overwhelmed every time.”</p><p>Tamaki nods, thinking back to how she’d likened the signatures in the training grounds to ‘echoes’ – again, what Kagami’s saying makes <em>sense</em>, but she still doesn’t know <em>how </em>to do what he wants.</p><p>They repeat the process three more times, the distance she has to cover to find her father lengthening every time, each trip punctuated by a comment from Kagami –</p><p>
  <em>“Lesson three: learn to distinguish animals from people and filter chakra natures.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Lesson four: learn to shape your sensing field. Straight lines instead of a sphere would lessen the sensory input.”</em>
</p><p>
  <em>“Lesson five: compartmentalise what you find.”</em>
</p><p><em>– </em>and a progressively more concerned expression from her father.</p><p>And then, just as she’s about ready to keel over from exhaustion or cry from the pounding in her head, Kagami offers her a white pill and a canister of water.</p><p>“Aspirin.” He explains with a small smile, and Tamaki takes the offered pill and unscrews the cap from the bottle with shaking fingers, and lets herself fall gracelessly onto her butt on the ground.</p><p>Unlike med-ninjutsu, the aspirin doesn’t have an immediate effect, but even the cold water going down her throat makes it easier for her to push the tears back.</p><p>“Your next challenge,” Kagami announces once she hands him his canteen back, and Tamaki barely manages to stifle her groan, “is to find <em>me</em>.”</p><p>And then he disappears.</p><p>Her father is still in the field though, and he frowns when Tamaki doesn’t even <em>try</em> to move.</p><p>“I don’t know his chakra.” She explains tiredly at his confused expression, shrugging resignedly. “He’s been hiding it the whole time.”</p><p>“Most shinobi will hide their chakra when not in the middle of battle.” Kagami’s voice announces, and Tamaki startles, craning her head to look behind her.</p><p>Kagami emerges from the treeline, and she realises belatedly that he must’ve known she wouldn’t be able to find him and didn’t bother going far.</p><p><em>Bastard. </em>Tamaki thinks, though she’s also grudgingly impressed. He’s been spot-on about the problems she might have so far, and it’s made her realise that all she’s really worked on with her father since their little ‘trips to the forest’ had been her range. None of the specialised instruction she’s receiving now.</p><p>“Lesson six: learn how to get a measure for your target’s chakra even when they’re hiding it.” He continues, and Tamaki’s about to snap ‘<em>yeah, but h o w?!’ </em>when he adds, “But for now, have this.”</p><p>And then he lets his chakra go, frees it from the iron-fisted control he’d kept it under, and Tamaki gasps.</p><p>Where Inuzuka Yukio had reminded her of firecrackers, or some others of bonfires or candles, Kagami’s chakra is an inferno, hot and all-consuming and destructive, and <em>everywhere.</em></p><p>And then, a second after it appears, it’s gone.</p><p>Realising what’s about to happen, Tamaki expands her senses and screws her eyes shut at the pain that stabs into her brain at the renewed onslaught of sensations, missing the concerned frown that briefly appears on Kagami’s face before he speaks.</p><p>“Now, try to find me again.” And he disappears in a sealless Shunshin.</p><p>And, like she’d suspected –</p><p>-<em>ping! </em>Less than a hundred metres to her left.</p><p>-<em>ping! </em>Another Shunshin, longer this time.</p><p>­-<em>ping! </em>Another jump, now almost at the limit of her range.</p><p>She throws her blindfold at her father’s feet and takes off running towards the first echo, hoping she’ll be able to find Kagami before the trace left by Shunshin fades completely.</p><p>Moving through the forest now that she can see is much quicker, though running makes her nausea return with a vengeance. She gets to the first echo without a problem, takes a second to remind herself of the feel of Kagami’s chakra, then changes course for the second echo.</p><p>By the time she reaches the final spot, she’s fully drenched in sweat and panting, her lungs burning, and she has to pause at the treeline, losing the fight with her nausea and throwing up her modest breakfast in the bushes.</p><p>Tears spring to her eyes and her throat burns, but she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand and collects herself as much as she can before she steps out from the trees and meets Kagami’s surprised gaze.</p><p>“I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect you to be able to find me.” He tells her frankly, something that her tired brain interprets as approval shining in his eyes. “I didn’t think you’d gotten a lock on my chakra signature yet.”</p><p>“I hadn’t.” Tamaki replies, her voice scratchy and barely audible, her bones weighed with fatigue. She raises a hand to rub at her eye, then remembers it was the hand she’d wiped her mouth with and changes course half-way, lowering it back to her side. “Lesson two, Uchiha-san.”</p><p>
  <em>All jutsu leave a chakra trace.</em>
</p><p>She watches as Kagami’s eyes widen, then narrow, and he tilts his head, clearly expectant, and Tamaki hates that she can’t explain <em>why</em> she can read his body-language as easily as she can (<em>reincarnated-</em><em>adult-with-a-psychology-degree, anyone?</em>) but her teacher’s-pet tendencies won’t allow her to play dumb.</p><p>She sighs.</p><p>“I tracked you by the traces of your Shunshin.” She explains, then freezes, because Kagami’s eyes narrow further, but this time in clear suspicion.</p><p>“What do you know of the Shunshin?” he asks, and his tone is perfectly bland, not accusatory in the slightest despite his expression, but Tamaki’s lizard-brain has kicked into gear now and she knows that she <em>fucked up. </em></p><p>
  <em>Stupid, stupid, stupid!</em>
</p><p>“It’s the Ninja-Dash.” She stalls as she tries to think of how to dig herself out of this. She makes sure to pitch her voice to sound appropriately childish and blink confusedly at Kagami despite how much the action makes her eyes sting. “Nii-san was talking about it, and I wanted to know what it was, so I asked.”</p><p>It’s only after hearing the contrast between her suddenly-childish voice and the way she's been speaking so far that she realises that she had forgotten to act like the child she supposedly <em>is</em> since the start of this ‘test’.</p><p>Still, she hopes her wording will conceal her slip-up: it's not technically a lie, though she doesn’t say <em>who</em> she'd asked, or <em>when</em> Inoichi had been talking about it, or <em>why </em>she wanted to know what the 'Ninja-Dash' was, but she thinks that in this case, more detail than necessary would be even <em>more </em>suspect.</p><p>Kagami studies her for a beat longer, then finally, he nods, and Tamaki feels a weight lift from her shoulders.</p><p>“So you tracked me through the traces of chakra I left between every Shunshin.” He summarises, waiting for her nod. “Smart. Seems one of the lessons took even without me having to properly explain it.”</p><p>Tamaki blinks, this time genuinely confused, and Kagami actually <em>smiles</em>.</p><p>“Your father did an admirable job expanding your range and teaching you the basics, but he is not a sensor, not in the sense that you are. Or I am, for that matter.” He pauses, smile turning a little wry at whatever he must make of her expression. “But we both agree that you need further training to develop your sensing. Your range, for your age, is commendable, but in the field, it will do you more harm than good if you don’t learn how to avoid the sensory-overload.”</p><p>“Are you going to <em>teach me</em>, Uchiha-san?” Tamaki asks after a beat, when Kagami seems content to leave it there.</p><p>There is a lot more suspicion in her tone than the explanation warrants, and she’s certain that if her father had been in the field with them, he’d have sighed and chastised her about manners, but Kagami just smiles that weird little smile of his again.</p><p>“It wasn’t lip-service when your father called me my Clan’s best sensor.” He tells her evenly, meeting her eyes, and somehow, Tamaki doesn’t think he’s being arrogant. “And while your suspicious nature might save your life in the field someday, you don’t need to worry about my motives.”</p><p>Tamaki flushes, though his words don’t sound like they’re intended to chastise, she still knows he would’ve been within his rights to take offense at her suspicion.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Uch-” she catches herself, remembering what the man had said, “Kagami-sensei.”</p><p>But it seems to be the wrong thing to say, because a grimace of pain flashes across Kagami’s face, the rawest and most negative emotion she’s seen from the man so far, and Tamaki is correcting herself before she even realises she’s doing it:</p><p>“Kagami-<em>shishou</em>.”</p><p>The correction appears to jar Kagami out of whatever he’d been thinking about, and he pins her with a steady, contemplative look for a few seconds before he speaks.</p><p>“We’ll meet every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at noon. Your warmup task will be to find me, wherever in the Village I may be, in time for our lessons. You won’t be needing anything bar maybe a bottle of water for our sessions. Is that agreeable?”</p><p>“Yes, sir.” She nods, gathering the courage to shoot her new teacher a tiny smile, and she’s rewarded with an answering smile being reflected back at her.</p><p>“Good. Let’s take you back to your father now, hm?”</p><hr/><p>Once they reach the edges of the Yamanaka compound, her father instructs her to go home alone, so she does, leaving him alone with Kagami to discuss…<em>whatever. </em></p><p>As she steps into their house with a quiet ‘<em>tadaima’</em>, she’s a little surprised to find Inoichi sat around the kotatsu with child versions of who she knows are Shikaku and Chouza. She’s interacted with Shikatema, however briefly, but she hasn’t seen Shikaku other than in passing despite the supposed close relations between their Clans.</p><p>Unless those relations don’t solidify until Inoichi is Clan Head?</p><p>She doesn’t know.</p><p>“Maki!” Inoichi exclaims once he catches sight of her, eyes widening, and his whole body jerks as if he wants to get up and run to her, but is clearly torn between making sure she's alright and 'losing cool points' with his friends.</p><p>Luckily and unluckily, his shout gets everyone else’s attention too, and Shikaku, Chouza, Satsuki and Shikatema also look up, and Tamaki only then remembers what she must look like.</p><p>“Tema-chan, what <em>happened</em>?” Her mother demands from where she’s sitting with Shikaku at the kitchen table, eyes wide as they scan her body with obvious worry.</p><p>“Tou-san had me track him through the woods.” Tamaki explains, toeing off her shoes and sliding on her slippers.</p><p>“How did you do?” An unfamiliar voice asks, and it takes Tamaki a moment to realise that it belongs to Shikaku.</p><p>She considers the boy for a beat. He actually looks somewhat curious about the answer, and Tamaki doesn’t like that expression on the face of the heir of a Clan of <em>geniuses, </em>especially when directed towards her person<em>.</em></p><p>And while her father hadn’t explicitly told her not to let others know about her sensing, if the whole shroud of secrecy around her training is any indication, she should probably keep her mouth firmly <em>shut </em>on the matter, Clan alliances or no.</p><p>She doesn’t want to be canon-fodder before her age reaches double-digits just because a kid blabs and the people in power realise she’s a walking radar device in <em>war-time</em>.</p><p>Her next move becomes apparent rather rapidly in light of that realisation:</p><p>
  <em>Make him lose interest.</em>
</p><p>She shrugs at the Nara heir, making sure her expression is as disinterested as possible.</p><p>Then, pasting a smile on her face, she musters her energy and bounds up to Inoichi. “Hey, nii-san, did you know the Uchiha can summon <em>crows?</em>”</p><p>Inoichi’s eyes narrow at her for the briefest of seconds, then he gasps, a delighted smile growing on his face as he immediately launches into a monologue about what the ‘coolest summons to have’ would be, and actually manages to pull Chouza <em>and </em>Shikaku into the discussion, bless him.</p><p>Safe in the knowledge that the boys are far more interested in their debate than in what she was doing in the forest, she allows the smallest of self-satisfied smiles to bloom on her face as she turns away from her brother and his friends, only to feel her blood run cold when she finds Shikatema and her mother both looking at her from their place at the table.</p><p>Her mother looks a little shocked, but Shikatema just nods, as if having confirmed something he’d already suspected, and she’s more worried by his quiet satisfaction than by her mother’s shock.</p><p>He hasn’t struck her as a threat yet, and the foundation of the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho alliance between her father and the Nara and Akimichi Heads tells her he wouldn’t harm her, but the Nara are hailed as geniuses for a <em>reason</em>.</p><p>Taking a subtle breath, she meets her mother’s gaze and smiles winningly, then raises a hand to point at her face.</p><p>“Could you patch me up, please?” she asks politely, and sees the exact moment her mother’s shock melts away, only to be replaced with what looks like relieved fondness, so she screws her nose up for extra 'cute points'. "It <em>itches</em>."</p><p>“Of course, Tama-chan.” Satsuki replies, getting to her feet with an apologetic smile at Shikatema, and sweeping Tamaki into her arms, pressing her a bit tighter than strictly necessary to her chest. “Let’s make sure your pretty face doesn’t scar, hm?”</p><p>As she’s carried out of the room in her mother’s arms, Tamaki catches the moment Inoichi turns away from his future teammates and shoots her a glance. They make eye-contact, and Tamaki sees the contemplative look in her brother’s eyes as he holds her gaze.</p><p>Shikaku and Shikatema might be from a Clan of geniuses, but Inoichi is her older brother: he <em>knows</em> her, not as well as others had <em>before, </em>but probably better than her parents can claim to at this point, so he must realise she'd acted oddly, even if he probably doesn't understand <em>why. </em></p><p>Instead of backing down, Tamaki raises her chin from her mother’s shoulder and mouths ‘<em>later</em>’, gratified when Inoichi nods shallowly and turns back to Shikaku and Chouza, smile back on his face, and Tamaki finally allows herself to fully sag in her mother’s hold.</p><p>She’s asleep in a matter of seconds.</p><hr/><p>Unbeknownst to the siblings, Shikatema witnesses the entire exchange, though Shikaku and Chouza remain ignorant of the wordless conversation between the Yamanaka.</p><p>As Satsuki disappears upstairs, Shikatema turns towards the front door where Inojou is standing, eyes trained on where his wife and daughter had been mere seconds earlier.</p><p>Inojou’s mouth is curled down, a frown creasing his brows, and his gaze flickers from the bottom of the stairs to Shikatema, black meeting worried ice-blue.</p><p>And then, Inojou sighs, and he seems to age a decade before Shikatema’s very eyes. Finally, his friend nods, resigned, and Shikatema realises that they’re finally going to talk about the elephant in the room:</p><p><em>That is </em>not <em>a four-year-old child.</em></p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>